Chapter 119

My heart was hammering. I was injured. If this was Candido, then he was too weak to do anything. We were going to die. And if this wasn’t Candido, I’d never see him again. I couldn’t help but cry more. I knew in my heart that this wasn’t Candido. This wasn’t my Candido. I didn’t know and I didn’t care who this was, but I didn’t want to die with a stranger.

“When I give the signal and let you go,” he said. “Run. Do you understand me?”

I sniffled. “Candido… I want Candido…”

One of the vampires in the front lifted their hand. The imposter tightened his grip on me a little. A little flicker of light swirled in the air and the ceiling of the cave pulled apart, letting the moonlight spill over us. The humid, cold air of the cave lifted and I could breathe deeply. I held still as every movement seemed to just make the pain worse.

A staircase grew out of the wall between us and the group of vampires. The group didn’t move any closer. Several of them began to disappear into the darkness as if they were leaving. I felt them going away.

“Go,” the one in front said. It sounded like a woman. Her voice was strong and sure. “Get out of the caves before it is too late, and do not return. You are too weak to fight here.”

I didn’t know whom she was talking to, but I looked up the stairs. I lunged for them, but the imposter yanked me back, crushing me back against his chest again. He lifted a dagger in his hand that glinted in the moonlight.

“How can we trust this isn’t just another illusion?” Candido asked. “None of you are werewolves.”

She scoffed. “If I wanted to kill you, Candido, I would have done so long before you found Hedy. Don’t be so childish.”

“Francia?” I asked, pushing at the man’s arms. “This isn’t Candido. Help me find him!”

“Pandora, stop,” he grunted, tightening his grip on me.

She chuckled and turned. “Seems like you have quite a bit of work ahead of you, Alpha King.”

Her voice was sneering and a little mocking. “This war is far more complicated than you and your burning capital, or your little lover’s spat.”

She turned her head and headed into the darkness. “Go. Before I change my mind.”

Candido’s imposter was stiff, but slowly, he got me onto my feet. He kept his hand clamped over my mouth as he forced me to walk towards the stairs. A gust of wind swept down and carried the scent of blood toward us, but it wasn’t the same sort of scent that had clung to Claire after she killed werewolves or vampires. There was some other scent, but it wasn’t like any other scent I had smelled from a vampire. It smelled a bit like fresh water from the purest spring.

Maybe I was wrong, and they weren’t vampires. Maybe they were some other kinds of werewolves that lived somewhere remote like New Moon. I could believe that woman was Francia. She seemed so sure that this was Candido, but there was no way that she was right.

Candido’s imposter released me mostly and nudged me towards the stairs, keeping himself between me and her as he walked us backward up the stairs, keeping his eyes on the leader of the group, who seemed to be watching us too. I couldn’t see her face through her hood.

Had she been the one to attack me in the woods?

When we reached the forest floor, and all I could smell was the fresh scent of the forest. The ground rumbled and the hole began to close until the shadowed figure vanished under the earth.

A rattling breath of relief shuddered out of him and he let me go.

I pulled away from him and turned to him. “You yelled at me!”

Candido said nothing, still looking down at the place where the hole had been. He looked pensive and concerned. I wanted to rip the mask off his face. I wanted to scream and yell at him, but he said nothing. He had to know I was mad at him. Everything hurt and he didn’t even seem to care that I was hurt and in pain and scared.

“Hello?” I asked. “Aren’t you going to apologize?”

He remained silent as if he wasn’t listening or he was just ignoring me.

“Candido!”

“They weren’t werewolves,” Candido said finally.

I glared at him. “Is that really important right now? You—”

“They weren’t werewolves, and they let us go,” Candido said. “There wasn’t even a trace of hostility in them. Their leader seemed almost… amused.”

He shook his head. “But she wasn’t…”

He frowned and stumbled back. He swayed before sinking onto a rock nearby and slumping forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and drawing in deep stuttering breaths. Light rippled over his skin and he grunted. He gripped his hands and closed his eyes, taking in deep, labored breaths.

“You’re worried about the people that just helped us out of the cave when you yelled at me? You yanked me around--”

He growled at me. “Hedy, you’re being childish.”

“I’m not childish!”

“Have you considered that you just revealed my identity to someone who might want to kill me? Who might be in league with the vampires?” He opened his eyes and narrowed them at me. “That your panic and refusal to just do as I say could have cost your life and mine?”

My jaw dropped. “I didn’t do anything! It’s not my fault that they—”

“If you had followed orders, you wouldn’t have been captured in the first place!” Candido huffed. “We wouldn’t have had to chance going through the caves if you had just retreated when I told you. And now, who knows where Vanessa and the rest of Blue Moon are!”

“You would have died if I hadn’t gotten help.”

“You’ll find that isn’t true. Gilgamesh and the others arrived after I had already killed them all.” He swayed in his seat. “We were supposed to leave then when no one could tell me where you were and Francia told us that you’d been taken into the forest.”

Tears spilled down my face. “I can’t believe you’re blaming me for all of this! What happened to me being your mate and you loving me?”

He turned to me. “On a mission, you are Pandora. I told you to stay behind, but you didn’t. I expected you to follow orders, but you didn’t. It is your fault. Take responsibility for your actions. You being my mate doesn’t excuse your behavior!”

I sniffled and glared at him. “And what about your responsibilities? What kind of alpha king are you with the whole capital burned down? Vampires have taken over the capital. I got kidnapped! You’re supposed to protect me and you didn’t!”

Candido looked at me plainly. “… you’re alive, aren’t you?”

“How can you think that’s enough?” I asked. “And it wasn’t like you had anything to do with that!”

“How could you think it’s not?” Candido asked, his eyes fluttering like he was fighting back sleep. “With the number of people who have died tonight and can’t say the same? How can you even think that my actions had no part to play in why you’re still alive?”

I glared at him and turned away. “I’m not talking to you until you apologize.”

Candido scoffed. “We’ll see how long that lasts.”

His hand fell on my shoulder. I twisted away and cried out when he tightened his grip and kept me still.

“Stop being childish. You’re injured.”

“I’m fine! I don’t want your help. Shouldn’t you be more worried about those people who helped us?”

“Unlike you, I can multi-task,” he said, pressing a thumb against my shoulder. I shrieked. “Your shoulder is cracked and out of its socket. Stay still.”

“No!” I cried. “Let me go.”

He sighed. “You’re going to be stubborn about this? And just stay in pain, hm?”

“Let me go, Candido,” I hissed.

“Fine,” he said, releasing me. “Stay in pain.”

He turned. “Are you going to stay here and pout or are you coming somewhere you can at least get clean?”

“You’d leave me here?”

He shook his head and turned away, walking off into the darkness. I followed after him.

“You’re just going to leave me here? What kind of mate are you? I’m injured and cold and scared and—”

“Childish,” he said, walking over a tree root. “I can’t talk to you as Pandora or Hedy, so there’s no sense in trying until you calm down.”

I growled at him. “Now, you’re telling me that I can’t do my job.”

“I’m telling you that you don’t seem interested in doing your job.”

I huffed. “Yeah, right! I do my job!”

Candido hummed and held a branch out of the way as I stomped past. “They weren’t werewolves. They smelled like blood, but not like vampires.”

“…they smelled different to you.”

I looked back at him and sneered. “Now who’s not doing their job?”